MISSISSIPPI 845 



Charitable Institutions. A law of 1912 requires that poor and needy persons be admitted 

 for treatment in any "charity" hospital supported by the state. Among the appropriations 

 were 450,000 annually for Confederate veterans and their widows, and 98,000 biennially 

 for the Confederate veterans' home at Beauvoir. 



History. The chief political issue in 1911 and 1912 was the United States senator- 

 ship. After a deadlock lasting seven weeks, Le Roy Percy (b. 1861) was elected, Febru- 

 ary 22, 1910, to serve the unexpired term (ending March 4, 1913) of Anselm Joseph 

 McLaurin (1848-1909; governor, 1896-1900; senator, 1901 to his death). State senator 

 Theodore G. Bilbo (elected lieutenant-governor in 1911) testified that he had changed 

 his vote from Percy's opponent, James Kimble Vardaman (b. 1861 ; governor in 1904-08) 

 to Percy for money paid him by L. C. Dulaney, another state senator, who was indicted 

 for bribery. Percy urged a thorough investigation, and the case broke down complete- 

 ly; apparently the notes that Bilbo claimed he had been bribed with came from a local 

 bank after the date of the supposed bribery. The state senate exonerated Percy and 

 his campaign managers and came within one vote (two-thirds vote necessary) of expel- 

 ling Bilbo. But in the primaries, August i, 1911, Vardaman 's candidacy for the senate 

 was successful. 1 The legislature elected on the senatorial issue asked (March 5, 1912) 

 for the resignation of Percy, who had offered at the time of the bribery charge to refer 

 his claims to the voters of the state, who had received only 21,500 votes out of a total 

 of 132,400 at the August primary, and who was therefore considered discredited by 

 Vardaman 's followers. Percy had promised, immediately after the August 1911 pri- 

 maries, to resign in January 1912 unless in self-defence he was forced to keep his seat by 

 continued attacks upon him; and he refused to retire (March 9, 1912), Vardaman 's 

 accession to the United States Senate was deprecated by many because as governor he 

 had indulged in much severe criticism of negroes. In November 1911 a suit in chancery 

 was brought against Vardaman for the restitution of public moneys, but the suit was dis- 

 missed, March 2, 1912, after an investigation by the legislature. Earl L. Brewer, 

 governor for 1912-16, elected without opposition, is a Democrat, and the legislature 

 and the congressional delegation (8 as before) are Democratic. The Republican state 

 convention split and chose rival delegations, one for Taft and one for Roosevelt, but 

 the former was seated and many contests were withdrawn at the last moment. In the 

 presidential campaign the state primary elections were for Underwood and in November 

 the vote was overwhelmingly large for Woodrow Wilson, who received 57,164 votes to 

 3,627 for Roosevelt, 1,511 for Taft and 2,017 for Debs (978 in 1908). 



There were several lynchings in the state in 1911-12: of a negro for murder at Rock- 

 port (March 25, 1911); 2 negroes for attempting to poison a family at Louisville (May 

 5th); a negro accused of murder at Chunky (June i6th); one for murderous assault 

 on a white man at Lockhart (Nov. 7th); one at Sucarnoochee (Jan. 15, 1912) for murder; 

 one at Starkville (Feb. i4th) for rape; one at Greenville (May 7th) for the same offence; 

 and another on the same day at Macon for murder. A negro was killed in a gambling 

 raid at Gunnison (Feb. 15, 1911) and a race war for a time seemed imminent. 



The state suffered from floods in the spring of 1912. A dike at Greenville 'burst April 

 1 2th and about 1,300 sq. m. in the lower Yazoo district was inundated. 



There was a serious strike centering in the state on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley 

 Railroad. A federation of railway employees in June 1911 demanded recognition, not 

 merely in Mississippi, from the "Harriman" lines. Of the 9 unions included in the 

 federation, 7 had contracts which called for 30 days ' notice before action on change in 

 relations; the officials of the railway, on this ground refused to recognise the federation. 

 The men went out, September 25, 1911, and there was violence at Vicksburg and Mc- 

 Comb City, when new men tried to work, so that the militia had to be called out. No 

 settlement of the strike was made in 1911 or 1912. 



The state supreme court on December 10, 1912 ruled that the "Jim Crow" law 

 (for separate cars for negroes) applies to through sleeping cars as well as day coaches. 



1 The other senator from Mississippi is John Sharp Williams (b. 1854; representative in 

 Congress 1893-1909; minority leader 1903-09). He succeeded for 1911-17 Hernando de 

 Soto Money (1839-1912), senator from 1897 to 1911, who died on September 18, 1912. 



